


A Land Serene, A Crystal Moon

by My_Alter_Ego17



Series: A Land Serene, A Crystal Moon [1]
Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: #96linefest, #onceuponadawn, Book References, Elves, Fae & Fairies, Fairy Tale Elements, Fantasy, Fauns & Satyrs, Friendship, Gen, Otherworld, Shapeshifters - Freeform, Teenager Problems, The Lord of the Rings References, Wen Jun Hui | Jun is a nerd, faery hill, fantasy novel plot logic, fantasy novel reasoning, nerd problems, nerds
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-05
Updated: 2019-09-05
Packaged: 2020-10-06 23:28:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,037
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20515256
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/My_Alter_Ego17/pseuds/My_Alter_Ego17
Summary: Jun spends his days waiting for school to end so he can return to his books in the safety of his own room. Reading all afternoon, he pretends to be a hero with an important mission and loyal companions. Until one day, he discovers a fantasy world of his own...





	A Land Serene, A Crystal Moon

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to Lily, Ren and my lovely roommate for dealing with my whining, reading over my poor attempts at writing, giving me advice and encouraging me to actually finish this! I love you lots <3 <3 <3 <3 <3

_three hazy figures _

_ at midnight, on a hill _

_ in the middle of a clearing, deep in the forest _

_ one has wings, one has horns, one has pointed ears and a tail _

“_what shall we do,” one purrs,_

“_there’s only one way,” the other rasps,_

“_if a human child climbs the rock in the centre in a three-quarter moon’s night,” the third one sings, “and pushes the red button -”_

  


  


  


  


It’s an ordinary Tuesday.

As usual, Jun gets ready for school in a hurry. He blindly stumbles through his room until he finds his glasses, stuffs the newest part of his latest niche manga discovery in his bag and hurries downstairs to the kitchen. Of course he’s late again, so he inhales his breakfast and only greets his little brother on the stairs with a short wave. When he finally gets rid of his braces, brushing his teeth won’t take ages anymore either, and maybe then his hair will be long enough to wear it loose, too. 

He’s still struggling to fit all of his hair into a tie when he jogs toward the metro, so he nearly misses the object that’s lying there on the asphalt. He stops and kneels down to take a closer look at the pretty bracelet he almost crushed beneath his foot. It has a delicate silver chain with collectible charms: an adorable kitten, a gorgeous fox, a grumpy goat, an eagle, a frog, a bat and a tiger with strangely sharp eyes. Cute. The charms look well made and expensive, so he’s going to have to turn it in, but he can still wear it today, right?

On the metro, he puts his headphones in, puts on Ladies’ Code and finally starts reading his manga. When the train reaches his stop, the hero is stuck in a giant spider’s web in the middle of a forest with no way to escape. Unfortunately, he really can’t afford to continue reading now or he’ll be late late for maths.

In the classroom, he throws his jacket with the dragon print over his chair and takes a seat. “Hey Junhui, nice jacket,” someone drawls from the last row, “is that from the girls’ section?”

Jun grits his teeth. What a jerk.

Some students laugh, but most of them don’t care about his clothing choices. Luckily, the teacher arrives before someone can make another dumb comment. All things considered, a perfectly ordinary Tuesday.

The day only becomes remarkable when he goes home. Back on the metro, he finally comes back to his manga. The hero is still stuck in the same spider’s web where he left him in the morning, and Jun has been dying to find out how he’s going to free himself all day. Nobody ever sets foot in this part of the forest, so who would be there to help him? Suddenly, a dark silhouette appears above the hero. Jun exits the train without taking his eyes off the pages. A shiver runs down his spine when he gets a look of the shadow’s face: It’s the vampire from part five that had been gone since then. A few detailed drawings show the hero’s wide eyes when he recognises it too. While Jun climbs the stairs to his room, the hero frantically whips his head around in search for an escape, only to spot the spider slowly descending from the branch above him as if he wasn’t in enough of a desperate situation already.

Jun opens the door, takes a step and falls.

  


  


He lands relatively softly on a green carpet. Fumbling for his glasses while holding onto the book with his left hand, he finds it cool and kind of damp. Is that grass? He locates his glasses, puts them on and takes a look.

He’s sitting on a blooming meadow. Vibrant green dotted with white, yellow and red flowers surrounds him. Somewhere in the distance, he can see a slight slope and a couple of hills. On the opposite side, a storybook type forest extends into the distance. The landscape looks like one of the randomly generated windows backgrounds, the only difference is Jun knows where those come from.

How did this meadow end up in his room? Or, thinking about it, how did he get there from his room? And how is the hero going to escape the spider’s web?

Jun sits up straight and breathes in deeply. In his books, these kind of things happen all the time. There has to be a logical explanation for all of this. One step at a time. What would his favourite characters do in his place? Not lose their head, that’s for sure, so he can’t lose his head now either. Though Frodo would probably lie on the floor crying until someone showed up to save him, but that’s not an option for Jun right now. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a handsome elf come to his rescue? He waits for a minute just to make sure no mythical creature will magically appear to take him back home, then he goes back to taking check of his situation, a little disappointed.

He stopped paying attention the moment he took out his book, but he’s pretty sure he was at his house until he opened the door to his room. Then he fell, but nothing hurts, and his glasses aren’t broken, either. So that much is okay. He’s got his bag with him, the book and the clothes he’s wearing, which means he has at least three bags of sour plum candy, a bag of chips, a yoghurt and the packet of instant hotpot he keeps in his schoolbag just in case before he runs out of food. All he has to do now is find out where he is, how he got there and how he can get back home.

While he’s still trying to sort out his thoughts, he makes another discovery. Right in front of him, a boy materialises out of the grass. He looks about Jun’s age or maybe a little older, eighteen at most, and he has bright orange hair. His haircut looks strange, too – are those cat’s ears? Jun marvels at them until the boy waves his striped tail like a nervous cat. Wait, he has tabby cat ears and a tail?

“Are you a hybrid?” Jun can’t hold himself back from asking just as the other starts speaking.

“Hi, my name is Hoshi! No, I’m not, I’m a _ were _, obviously. And who are you?” He breaks out into a bright smile, pointing at the book in Jun’s hands. “Is that the new ‘The Last Dragon Fighter’ part?”

  


  


Hoshi is really, really nice and just as weird as he looks. He’s extremely cheerful, his thought process is just as erratic as Jun’s, he’s interested in anything and everything and very, very friendly. After only half an hour of talking to him, Jun would already give up all of his class in exchange for him. He asks Jun where he is in the manga right now and accidentally spoils the spider scene for him while he’s at it, but Jun doesn’t mind.

“The dragon on your jacket looks like the one from part three,'' he announces once he’s made a few more ominous comments about the next chapters, “that’s sooooo cool!”

Jun doesn’t tell him he gets weird looks for the flashy jacket at school. Somehow, he doesn’t want the other to know he’s kind of a loner. He wonders if Hoshi is popular, or if he’s an outsider for being a nerd like Jun is – he’s read almost all of Jun’s favourite books, and he knows Sam’s speech from The Lord Of The Rings II by heart.

“It’s a shame how the movies did Faramir dirty,” he laments, “he’s like the best character in all of the books and this is what they made of him! He would have never let his men harm Gollum.”

Jun couldn’t agree more. “And they made him want to take the ring and give it to his father, when he never had any interest in it in the books. That was one of his main characteristics! They simply made him a completely different person.”

“Honestly, they could have given him a new name,” Hoshi declares, “all he has in common with the original Faramir is his background.”

“He’s not even a bad character,” Jun relents, “they gave him an interesting development and his own way of dealing with his trauma, and he makes the right decision in the end. It’s just... he’s not Faramir.”

It goes on like this for a while. They sit cross-legged on the grass facing each other and discuss issues from all kinds of books, films and animes. Hoshi is the first person Jun has ever met who actually thinks about all of these questions as deeply as he does, and they agree on almost everything. Hoshi thinks that likeable characters are more important than exotic ones, too, that idealistic role models are a good thing as long as there are still ones the readers can identify with, and that both are lacking in Harry Potter.

Jun feels himself smile like an idiot the whole time. If he could stay here and talk to Hoshi forever, he wouldn’t mind one bit.

“I’ve never talked to someone who understands me as well as you do,” he tells him, “I love my brother, but he’s still a child. I can’t talk to my parents either, they read different books, and everyone at school only likes kdramas.”

Hoshi grins excitedly. “Me neither! My friends in here think we should go out and do something when we go to the outside world instead of hiding in a book. But I can still take books inside, can’t I?”

The outside world. His world, Jun supposes. He still has no idea where he is and how he ended up here, though it can’t be that bad with Hoshi by his side, can it?

Nevertheless, he sounds shaky and insecure again when he asks “Hoshi... Where is ‘in here’?”

For a split second, a shadow falls over his face, then he goes back to smiling: “I almost forgot about it!” He gets up, stretches out his arms, throws his head back and spins. “This is Otherworld!”

Otherworld. That could mean a lot of things. Jun gets up too and looks at his surroundings again. It’s a peaceful place, calm, sunny and not threatening in any way. Though things aren’t always as they seem in Otherworld, Jun knows from the books he’s collected ever since he learned how to read. He would like to ask if they are, but it’s hard to question Hoshi when he never stops talking for more than a few seconds.

“This is where I live,'' he tells him, “or at least it’s where I always come back to. And now, come meet my friends!”

  


  


Naturally, he takes Jun’s hand and leads him towards the forest.

How are Hoshi’s friends going to be? Are they – what did he say – weres like him, whatever that is? Are there humans in this world? Jun hasn’t even spotted any animals yet. He really hopes Hoshi’s friends are nice and don’t think he’s a loser like the people at home do. What if Hoshi changes his mind about him, too?

He lets go of Hoshi’s hand, hesitating. Hoshi turns to him and searches his face.

“Are you okay?”

Jun shrugs and puts on an indifferent face.

“There’s no need to be afraid,” Hoshi encourages him, “There’s nothing dangerous here in the outer fringe.”

In the outer fringe? Jun doesn’t understand a word.

He can’t look that convinced either, because Hoshi adds: “Or is it because of my friends? You don’t have to worry about them. They… take some getting used to them, but they mean well.”

That does nothing to diffuse Jun’s worries. They mean well? That’s what teachers say about bullies, too.

Hoshi gives him another thorough once over, then he looks him in the eye. “They’re not going to exclude you because you’re human, I promise. All of us are different, and we’re the outsiders in your world. We all know how it feels.” He smiles. “They’ll love you.”

Jun lets himself be pulled along across the blossoming meadow to the border of the forest. It looks like someone used a ruler to draw a neat line between the grass and the soft, mossy ground beneath the trees. There are flowers growing in the forest as well, small stars in white and violet that are nothing like the colourful flowers of the meadow. When Jun steps under the tall trees’ crowns, the soft humming that was ever-present on the meadow stops and makes way to a gentle silence. Suddenly, the air feels comfortably cool and fresh, as if he travelled to a different climate zone with one step. It feels like crossing a biome border in Minecraft.

Jun works up the courage to ask some more questions. “You said in my world, you’re the outsiders. Do you go there often? Is it easy to get to the outside world?”

Hoshi hesitates for far too long before he turns back to Jun – long enough for dread to rise in his stomach. What if there is no way out? What if he has to stay here forever?

But then, Hoshi grins at him. “Of course! There are doors everywhere! We spend just as much time outside as we do here. But the people give us strange looks. I can make my ears and my tail disappear, but they can still see I’m different, and they don’t want me close.”

He looks a little dejected and resigned. Jun decides that, if anyone, he can trust Hoshi. “People give me strange looks, too,'' he says quietly, “I don’t know what makes me different, but they don’t want me close either.”

Hoshi slings his arm around Jun’s shoulders. “They’re just being jealous because you have more imagination. They think they’re cool, but their lives are boring.”

He looks very sure of himself. His eyes are sparkling. Jun gives a tentative nod.

“You’re having fun with yours, aren’t you?” Hoshi asks, “You know what really counts.”

  


  


They continue on through the forest. Loose, springy dirt alternates with patches of deep green moss and small star-shaped flowers. The trees above them look a juicy green. Then, they come across an old maple tree with yellowing leaves. Jun picks up a small red and orange leaf from the ground and sees Hoshi’s face fall. He caresses the big tree’s trunk.

“It will be too late soon,” he murmurs.

Jun doesn’t get it. It’s just the arrival of autumn, isn’t it?

“What’s wrong?” he asks.

“I’ll tell you when we meet the others,” Hoshi promises.

Before they leave, Jun carefully places the leaf between the pages of his book. Hoshi raises his eyebrows.

“You can’t take that back with you,” he tells him, “Things from Otherworld always return to where they came from. If you’re unlucky, it might even take your book with it. So I’d rather leave this here if I were you.”

“And which Otherworld is this one?” Jun asks, “the one from the old myths? The one from fantasy books? Are there real fairies?”

A thought makes him grab Hoshi’s arm in shock: “Will a hundred years pass while I spend a day here?”

“Don’t worry,” Hoshi smiles, “Time passes much slower in the outside world. To answer your question - it’s the _ real _ Otherworld. We are _ fae _, and you’re inside a faery hill.”

Jun giggles. It does sound kind of silly. Hoshi nudges him. “Hey, I live in here! This is my safe place and it just happens to be inside a hill. But now, come on. We have things to discuss that the others should be around for.”

  


  


Finally, Hoshi leads him to a circular clearing with a low hill in its centre. Jun can make out two people on top of it.

“Hey!” Hoshi shouts, “Look who I’ve found!”

When they walk towards them, Jun has to squint against the evening sun on their backs.

“Guys, this is Jun,” Hoshi introduces him, “Jun, this is Jihoon and that’s Wonwoo. They’re my best friends.”

Jun takes a step sideways to position himself out of the direct line of the sun so he can take a look at them. Jihoon has curled horns, a black hoodie on and - fur on his legs? Jun stares for a bit. Then he remembers how impolite that is and gets a grip on himself. Soonyoung has a little fur, too, black and yellow stripes on his nape and his lower back. Maybe everyone here is a little furry. It takes him a second to search his brain for the right word: Jihoon is a _ satyr _, just like Grover from Percy Jackson. Somehow, he doesn’t look as at home on the bright clearing as you would expect from a satyr. He exudes a kind of dark energy and Jun feels a little intimidated.

Wonwoo is skinny and tall, at least a head taller than Jun. He’s wearing light brown leather tights and an old-fashioned dark green frock coat with crimson buttons and somewhat short sleeves. Thin dragonfly wings peek out from behind his shoulders, and his face - oh my lord. The air gets knocked out of Jun’s lungs and his jaw drops. Hoshi’s friend has a handsome face and a nice smile, and there’s something irresistible about him that Jun can’t quite place. Wonwoo is _ hot_.

Jun hears a hoarse snicker from Jihoon. He goes red. “Have you fallen for him already? He’s an elf, of course he’s beautiful. It’s the glamour. You get used to it.”

Jun is embarrassed. He opens his mouth, closes it again, turns around on his heel and runs back into the forest.

Thinking about it, it makes sense. Jun knows what glamour is, has read about elves who can make humans fall in love with them on sight and even make them hallucinate a different reality. It’s still embarrassing. Did Wonwoo do it on purpose?

Jun wants to go home, but he has no idea what the doors Hoshi mentioned look like. On the back of a big tree, he slides to the ground, pulls out a packet of sour plums and starts to eat.

Hoshi finds him a mere minute later. Out of breath, he sits down next to him.

“I’m sorry about that,” he says, “I should have warned you. I’m so used to him and his stupid face, I simply forgot about it. He’s feeling really bad about it - he can’t switch it off. Will you come back with me? We need you.”

Jun hesitates.

“There’s no need to be ashamed,” Hoshi continues, “I had the same reaction when I first met him, and Jihoon was even worse. But Wonwoo’s the one who’s the most embarrassed about it, I swear. It wears off quickly, and he’s pretty lame without it.” He gets up and gives him an encouraging smile.

Jun doesn’t want Wonwoo to feel bad about something he can’t control. Hoshi told him Jihoon and Wonwoo are outsiders, too, so he wants to be nice to them. And Hoshi said they needed him, and it seems to be important.

All of this looks too much like the typical start of an adventure to ignore it, and deep in his heart, Jun has always dreamt of being the hero of a story of his own.

He gets on his feet. Hoshi grins at him. “I like you,” he declares, “You’re cooler than the other humans.”

  


  


Sometime later, they’re sitting around a campfire, behind them the setting sun. Hoshi is smiling next to him, Wonwoo is stuffing his face and Jihoon is happily stealing rice from his plate.

Jun feels a lot better already, but there’s still this nagging feeling in the back of his mind that there’s something Hoshi hasn’t told him yet. Refusing to look up, he pushes the food on his plate from side to side and argues with himself. He gives himself a mental nudge and some fake confidence and faces the others. “Alright, spit it out! What’s all this about?”

For a few moments, they’re silent. Jihoon clears his throat and gives Hoshi a stern look. “Our faery hill is in danger,” he says curtly, “and we need your help.”

That sounds kind of plausible for someone who reads a lot. It fits the picture. He was somehow magically transported here, and now it’s his quest to save the faery hill. Just like in Narnia.

“What kind of danger?” he asks Hoshi.

“You’ve seen it already,” Hoshi says, “autumn is coming.”

Oh - of course. There aren’t supposed to be seasons in Otherworld, it’s always spring. Now it makes sense.

Wonwoo puts his plate aside. “In Otherworld, the sun is always shining,” he narrates, “the days are bright and the nights are short and mild. Nature is in eternal spring, and the flowers never wilt.”

Wonwoo’s voice is melodic and deep, and it draws Jun in. It becomes lower and cooler as the narration changes. “And yet, if Winter were to come, it can never be spring again. A tree that has once lost its leaves will never grow fresh buds. What has once faded, will never become green again. Our home will become a cold, dead wasteland if we don’t manage to put a halt to it.”

A shiver runs down Jun’s spine. It’s this real, live world Wonwoo is talking about.

“It has happened before,'' he continues, “Faery hills have fallen to desolation and have been left forever. But legend has it that there is a way to save it. If a human, so it is said, climbs the rock in the centre of the hill in a three-quarter moon’s night and pushes the red button -”

Jun feels himself be harshly torn from the captivating storytelling. Wonwoo looks embarrassed. “Only then it can be spring once again,” he ends.

Jun blinks a few times. He wasn’t expecting that kind of turn. All of this gives him a strange feeling like he’s not sure if he’s supposed to take it seriously. He looks at Hoshi as if to ask him if he’s getting it right. Hoshi makes a face.

“That’s what we were told,” he explains, “I have no idea what really is on that rock in the centre of the hill. The landscape turns... hostile the closer you get to it. Our people usually only live in the outer fringe. We’ve only gotten close to the centre a few times. I can’t really imagine there being a red buzzer mounted right on the rock.”

“We think it’s a metaphor,” Jihoon butts in, “there’s something you have to do up there, and it acts as a kind of reset button.”

All of this is a little too fast for Jun. A secret world, a vague threat, a dangerous journey and a quest in a distant place - this structure he knows very well. It seems totally natural, the obvious course of a story. But still there’s something out of place, something that doesn’t make sense, and around him, the story is continuing before he can put a finger on what feels so off. The others are discussing what the red button could stand for while Jun racks his brain to find out what’s wrong.

Oh - hold on. There it is. Of course, the question every hero has to ask themselves at the beginning of their journey: “Why me?”

  


  


He seems to have said that out loud. The others are looking at him, Hoshi looks anxious, Wonwoo apologetic and Jihoon exasperated.

“Because you’re here,” the satyr says, “see any other humans here?”

Exactly, that’s the problem. “But why am _I_ here?”

Wonwoo points to the bracelet on Jun’s arm. “This doesn’t belong in your world,” he explains, “so it has found its way back where it belongs. And you were attached to it.”

“Will I be teleported back if I take it off?” Jun asks.

“That’s not that easy,'' Wonwoo answers, “as you might know, fae can steal things from the outside world without them returning to their owners. You would have to find yourself a passage, a door you can use to step back into your own world instead of coming out on the other side. But that’s difficult, and you need the right mindset for it. Humans don’t always find a way.”

Jun looks at Hoshi.

“So you don’t even know if I will ever be able to go back home?”

Hoshi stares intently at his feet and doesn’t answer. As it seems, he conveniently left that out.

Jun likes it here, but he doesn’t want to be locked in. And right now, all he wants is to be back home in his room with his books. “How did the bracelet even come to me?” he asks.

Hoshi still doesn’t answer. “That’s his,” Jihoon says impatiently, “he dropped it through a door so someone from the outside world would find it.”

Jun chokes.

Finally, Hoshi looks up. “We needed help!” he explains desperately.

Nobody asked Jun if he wanted to help. Hoshi randomly picked him and never bothered to tell him it was on purpose. Jun feels betrayed, helpless and alone. How can he trust them now?

He gets up and runs away into the forest.

  


  


This time, it’s Jihoon who follows him. Instead of asking him to come back, he drops a blanket and a pillow into his lap and makes himself comfortable on the ground next to him.

He gives him an inquiring look. Jun pulls the blanket over his head. He doesn’t feel like talking.

“You will get back home,” Jihoon promises, “if you really want to, you will find a way.”

That sounds very much like wishful thinking and not at all like the real world.

When Jun doesn’t answer, Jihoon continues: “That’s how the doors work: You pick a passage and firmly believe that the outside world is on the other side. You have to be sure about where you’ll come out and if you really want to be there.”

Jun imagines what it would be like to go through a door and be back home in his room. He misses his own bed and the familiarity of his normal life. But it wouldn’t make a good ending. It wouldn’t feel right to read his books knowing that he gave up before his own adventure could even start.

He gets too warm under the blanket and pulls it back. Jihoon is still looking at him: “Do you really want to go home?”

“I don’t know,” Jun says quietly.

Jihoon props his head upon his hand. “Do you want to try?” he suggests.

Jun’s head is buzzing from all the turns the conversations are taking. “How much time do I have?” he asks.

Now Jihoon is the one who looks confused.

“I mean, when will my parents notice that I’m gone?” he explains.

“Don’t worry,” Jihoon says, “They won’t. It will be just the same moment you came here. Didn’t Hoshi tell you?”

Slowly, Jun relaxes. “Then I’m not giving up yet today.”

He’s still mad at Hoshi though.

It takes him a while to calm down. Jihoon tells him stories about Otherworld, about life as a faery and about his favourite rock bands, and eventually, Jun goes to sleep.

  


  


The next morning, he wakes up somewhat dazed. The forest’s ground beneath him is nice and soft, it smells like leaves and clean air and next to him is a boy with horns. Jihoon.

Slowly, the past day’s events come to his mind. He told Hoshi all of his thoughts and troubles and Hoshi conveniently forgot to tell him that he was the one who pulled Jun over here without knowing if there was a way back.

Now, he can think more clearly, and he’s angry. He heads back to the clearing. While he’s walking through the forest, his anger cools down and turns into a numb feeling of hurt. He thought he had found a friend in Hoshi. Now, he’s scared of talking to him. His steps slow down.

He tries to imagine himself telling Hoshi off, but his voice sounds thin and squeaky. What if Hoshi just ignores him or, even worse, laughs at him?

And he doesn’t even really know what he wants yet. He wants to go home, but he also wants to be the main character in his own story and go on an adventure of his own. Most of all, he wants Hoshi to apologise and for them to become friends again.

His knees feel like jelly when he steps into the clearing. Only Wonwoo is there, sitting on the ground and whistling while he stuffs things into backpacks. He looks like a normal boy with silly clothes, wings, and a good face.

“Hoshi is off to get some things,” he explains without looking up.

Jun exhales a sigh.

Wonwoo pats the grass next to him. “Come here, I made breakfast. Jihoon is still asleep, right?”

Jun nods, hesitates, then clears his throat. He doesn’t know what to say, so he simply sits down.

Wonwoo hands him a bowl. “You’re angry, aren’t you?” he asks. When Jun doesn’t answer, he adds: “You have every right to be. Hoshi sometimes does really stupid things. But he never means evil, I can promise you that much.”

For a while, they sit in silence. Jun is starting to feel more and more comfortable. The thought crosses his mind that it could be the glamour’s doings again. It’s hard to stay alert in a lovely place like this.

“You don’t know who to trust anymore, do you?” Wonwoo says, “I told Hoshi to put his cards on the table from the beginning.” He sighs and turns towards Jun.

Jun’s reasoning tells him not to trust anyone, but he can’t deny he’s already grown fond of the three odd friends and their pretty world.

“We’re not going to force you to do anything,” Wonwoo promises, “If you want to, you can leave at any moment.”

“I don’t even know if I want to leave,” Jun muses, “I don’t want to run away from my quest. It’s just that I hate when people aren’t honest with me.”

That’s what bugs him the most about all of this. He’s got bad memories of people who talk about him behind his back and lie about their true intentions. 

“Then you should tell Hoshi just that,” Wonwoo tells him. He pats Jun’s back and gets up. “Good luck.”

When Hoshi arrives, Jun is helping Wonwoo distribute food for two weeks in four backpacks. He waves at them, shouts a “good morning” and disappears back into the forest before Jun can so much as answer. A while later, he turns up again with a yawning Jihoon who seems more interested in his breakfast than their conversation. Just when Jun has convinced himself to approach him, they walk off once again. This time, Jihoon is talking and gesturing intently to Hoshi who has his ears flattened against his head.

Wonwoo looks at Jun apologetically, like he’s at a loss. He seems to have decided Jun needs a distraction, at least he starts to joke around. Without wanting to, Jun giggles. Wonwoo’s humour is disastrous, but he looks so happy and hopeful that Jun has to laugh about his expression alone. Well, maybe he does have a thing for lame jokes, too.

For a while, he forgets about his dilemma, about not belonging here and not knowing if he will stay.

  


  


At around noon, nobody can keep pretending like there’s a reason to avoid each other. Hoshi’s brilliant at avoiding, but Jihoon gives him a stern look and sits down next to Wonwoo just out of earshot.

Jun swallows. “You lied to me,” he finally begins.

Hoshi draws a breath as if to object.

Jun shrinks. His throat closes up. That was a bad start. He wishes he had his blanket back to hide under, but he knows he has to face this. He forces himself to look Hoshi in the eyes.

“I know, you didn’t lie, but you weren’t honest with me either.”

His heart is beating in his ears. This is exhausting.

Hoshi avoids his eyes. “I know,” he murmurs, “I’m sorry.”

That doesn’t feel like anything is solved at all. Jun breathes in deeply. Inside, he’s panicking. What is he supposed to say?

“I don’t think that’s enough,” he forces out.

He doesn’t even know what exactly he expects from Hoshi. An explanation, or a more sincere apology? A small part of him wishes Hoshi would lose his composure and start crying, but at the same time, he’s scared of the situation. It wouldn’t help anything anyway.

“Why couldn’t you tell me the truth right from the beginning?” he asks eventually. Now he feels vulnerable, and his voice sounds thin.

Hoshi stares at his fingernails. “I don’t know,” he says softly.

Jun has no idea what to say. He waits until the silence becomes unbearable.

Hoshi takes a deep breath. “I was scared,” he finally says.

Scared? Why would Hoshi of all people be scared? “Why?” he asks.

“Because I didn’t want you to get mad at me!” Now his resolve has broken. “You appeared here with your cool jacket and your manga and I needed your help, and I wanted to be your friend! I didn’t want you to leave right away.”

That is a new thought for Jun. Hoshi didn’t keep a secret because he wanted to hurt him, but because he wanted to keep him there, just like Jun wanted Hoshi to like him and stay with him. He feels a little warm in his stomach beneath his anger.

“But I wouldn’t have left right away!” he shouts, “I really liked it here! But now I don’t like it here anymore!”

Hoshi’s lower lip trembles. His eyes are wet and shiny. “Are you saying you want to leave?” he asks in a weak voice.

Jun wants to give him a hug and tell him it’s alright, but he can’t forgive him just like that.

Hoshi closes his eyes and heaves a sigh. “Then I will help you find a door,” he announces. “I want to make it up to you for this. I don’t want to lose you already, but I’d rather know you’re at home and happy than have you here and upset with me.”

Jun doesn’t know what to say or think. Is this good? Is Hoshi sincere? He decides to give it a try.

  


  


Jihoon’s and Wonwoo’s faces are undecipherable when Jun tells them they’re going to look for a door.

Jihoon picks two trees at the clearing’s side whose branches join in the air to form a green archway. He pats Jun on the back. “Just take a step through it,” he tells him, “close your eyes and focus on where you want to be.”

Jun nods tentatively. Again, he feels like the world around him is turning too fast.

Wonwoo gives him an encouraging smile. Hoshi looks at his feet.

He takes a deep breath and closes his eyes. Slowly, he takes a few steps. His outstretched hand touches the cool bark.

Jun imagines opening the door to his room and entering. He walks towards the bookshelf and picks up The Hobbit. He thinks of the afternoons he spends reading alone in his home. Then he thinks of Jihoon’s blunt, open way of talking, of Wonwoo’s lame jokes and his funny laugh, of Hoshi’s thoughts and opinions on books and how he almost cried just because he wanted to be Jun’s friend.

He opens his eyes. The forest around him is quiet and green. He turns around and looks at his new friends.

Jihoon breathes a sigh of relief. Wonwoo grins at him like he knew he wasn’t going to leave, and Hoshi throws himself into his arms, now actually crying.

“I don’t want to go home now,” Jun says, “I’ve got friends here, and I have a mission to carry out.”

**Author's Note:**

> This is the end of a chapter, but for Jun and his new friends, it's just the beginning of their journey. There's more to come!


End file.
